Twitter Engagement: Some Lessons from AIDS.gov

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist

A couple of weeks ago I participated on a panel with our CDC colleagues Ann Aiken and Jessica Schindelar about Twitter monitoring, evaluation, and engagement at the CDC’s National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media. During this panel I spoke about “engagement” on Twitter – providing different definitions of it and how we at AIDS.gov work to engage our Twitter followers (and here are the slides ).

2010 CDC Health Communication, Marketing, and Media Conference Highlights

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist

Last week in Atlanta I joined nearly 1,000 health communicators at CDC’s 4th Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media. The theme of this year’s conference was “Convergence: Purpose, Programs, & Partners.” From the opening session, to the numerous panels, to the tweet up, to the closing session, the conference emphasized a “forward movement of partnerships and programs toward a common purpose.” The conference was divided into four complimentary tracks:

Data Academy: Providing Training and Technical Assistance around HIV Data to Ryan White Grantees and Program Staff

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of knowing your audiences and their information needs. Our colleagues at the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HAB/HRSA) provide training and technical assistance (TA) to Ryan White grantees and program staff about how to manage data. In response to feedback and a process to identify unmet TA needs, HAB/HSRA developed Data Academy , a series of on-demand, web-based training modules about how to collect, use and share data. We spoke to Mira Levinson, Project Director, to learn how and why they developed Data Academy. Here’s what she had to say:

Data Academy is based on feedback we received from Ryan White grantees and program staff about what kinds of support they needed to help manage, report and use their data. We used the POST strategy to figure out exactly what information would be most important to convey, and the most effective way for grantees to access the information.

HIV/AIDS/STD Prevention Demonstration Projects for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority-serving Institutions

By Naima Morales Cozier, AIDS.gov Training Adviser

Naima Morales Cozier, AIDS.gov

The cultural diversity of communities of color is to be celebrated. We have overcome adversity and barriers at every turn with the hope of change. With this same determination, we face the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Communities of color disproportionately account for an alarming number of HIV/AIDS cases. As an Afro-Latina, HIV/AIDS prevention advocate, and public health professional, I am very familiar with our challenge. The statistics and numbers constantly run through my head: African Americans account for almost half the number of people living with HIV; Latino/Hispanics account for 17% of new HIV infections in the U.S. in 2006; rates for new infection among Native American/Alaskan Natives are higher than whites, though American Indians and Alaska Natives make up 1.5% of the total U.S. population. There is much work to be done.

New Media and the 2010 National Gay Men's Health Summit

By Miguel Gomez, AIDS.gov Director

Later this month, the 2010 National Gay Men’s Health Summit (GMHS 2010) will take place August 25-30 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to the recently released National HIV/AIDS Strategy, “Gay and bisexual men have comprised the largest proportion of the HIV epidemic in the United States since the first cases were reported in the 1980s, and that has not changed. They still comprise the greatest proportion of infections nationally.” Today, gay and bisexual men of all races are the only group in the United States where the estimated number of new HIV infections is rising annually (PDF 387 KB).